Werewolf Hunting Rules.

Chapter 567 Hesitation
"Right foot forward, left foot back, turn your body as sideways as possible, and extend the pistol forward."

"Look at your opponent, don't think about how to kill him, and don't think about how much it will hurt to be injured. What you need to do is not kill, but pull the trigger."

"Oh, when adjusting your posture, you can silently repeat to yourself: 'I am a piece of paper,' which is very helpful."

Clayton Bello is helping Julius prepare for the duel in the garden clearing. He has been training for the past few days to increase his chances of survival after being shot, and today he began training to "try not to be shot".

Julius himself was hoping Barbara would resolve the matter, but she hadn't been home for several days, and no one knew where she had gone; divination was also ineffective against vampires.

"I am a piece of paper"

As Julius read those words, his shoulders twitched, as if he wanted to sneer but couldn't make a sound, and there was no smile on his face.

"Don't tell me this is a spell."

He stood in the posture Clayton had instructed, his lifeless body resembling a withered willow tree.

“It can reduce fear and relax your body. Sometimes even a little bit of sweat on your hands can cause you to lose your aim.” Clayton answered while circling around him, dissatisfied with everything he looked at, but unable to pinpoint what was wrong, before shoving a pistol into the wizard’s hand.

"Fire a shot at that tree in front of you."

Julius reached to the side without looking and grabbed the pistol—along with Clayton's fingers—and pulled it several times without realizing it was wrong.

Clayton had no choice but to stop: "Enough, I know where the problem lies, you..."

"The problem lies with this pistol!"

Julius abandoned his dueling stance, turned around with his hand on his waist, and looked resentful.

"There's too much iron in the pistol; it interferes with my intuition. The same goes for swords. I shouldn't have participated in any duels in the first place!"

“Two people shooting at each other from less than twenty paces apart, I don’t think that requires psychic powers to accomplish.” Clayton Bello toyed with the flintlock pistol, which spun nimbly in his hand, never stopping for a moment.

"Besides, aren't you about to be promoted soon? Does a copper ring have anything to fear from iron?"

The wizard had previously told Clayton that even though he lacked affinity for the elements, once he became a copper ring, he would be able to extinguish flames at close range, preventing the musket from firing.

He then brought up the conversation, and Julius's expression darkened further, but he did not refute it.

"I smell fear on you. What are you afraid of?" the werewolf pressed. The wizard wasn't new to combat, though this was his first duel, but he should have performed better than an ordinary person who had never fought before.

Julius remained silent.

Ever since Clayton made the duel on his behalf, he had been immersed in anxiety, and as time went on, this restless anxiety began to subside, turning into another complex negative emotion that Clayton could not understand.

“Julius, you’re a man. You can’t and shouldn’t always fight people who are not as strong as you.”

Julius turned his back: "You don't understand."

Clayton took the leather water bottle containing diluted blood plasma from a nearby branch and began to screw on the cap: "The last time I heard someone say something like that was when Donna was at home. You're not trying to imitate her, are you—a sixteen-year-old girl?"

He took a sip of blood plasma, and his expression relaxed somewhat.

“I didn’t say I understood.” The wizard’s back was to the werewolf, his back looking very tired. “I just can’t pull myself together. Ian Lazarus is an unexpected danger. I don’t think he should be my enemy. Even if reason proves that he is going to fight me to the death, I can’t accept it. It’s an instinct, not a matter of thought.”

"Ah, I see. It's probably because you feel guilty towards him."

"Guilt? Me?" Julius finally laughed, but clearly not out of joy. He turned to face the lieutenant: "That's a good joke, but I'm not a champion of conventional morality. I've never felt that way."

“You’re not capable of judging that, so save your breath,” Clayton said, believing he had grasped the root of the change.

The werewolf recounted Julius's past adversaries: "The prophet threatened your father's cause, so you killed her. The mad wizard of the Key Clan accepted a job from the Brotherhood of Friendship and is our enemy, so it was only natural for you to take action against them. The witch of the circus was ruthless towards us, and you couldn't avoid her, so you fought her. Those detectives Hook beat you up, and their actions only helped our enemies, so you had no qualms about killing them."

“But Ian Lazarus was different from his friends. He was helping our Ms. Barbara before he died, and after being granted his freedom by Barbara, he went to the workhouse to do volunteer work. He was an impeccable guy.”

“When you realize that your anger towards him in Gevor was a bit too much, you become like a little kid who realizes his prank has gone too far, and you start to feel anxious, guilty, and fearful.” Julius was silent for a little longer this time.

“I don’t think so. Your speculation about me is meaningless. This is a dangerous battle with no gains, and there’s no need to hate it.”

“No profit, fine,” Clayton said. “If you come out of the duel alive, I’ll give you fifty pounds.”

The problem of no profit was solved immediately, but Julius still couldn't find the motivation to throw himself into the battle without fear of death.

“If all else fails, just think about women,” Clayton suggested.

People always think about home before they die, but considering Julius's family situation, Clayton thought it would be more realistic to make him think about women.

However, once he brought up the topic, Julius immediately lost interest in the conversation: "That's enough. If you don't have anything else for me to do, I'm going out."

He took his coat off the tree, put it on, and turned to walk inside.

"Where are you planning to go?" Clayton asked from behind him.

“I’ll meet up with my friends; maybe they can help me,” Julius said without turning his head.

"You still have friends?"

Clayton's question went unanswered. The wizard seemed not to have heard him, but simply quickened his pace and disappeared from his sight.

"Was my opinion of him a bit harsh?" the lieutenant pondered, stroking his chin, but he couldn't reach a conclusion, so he went back to his study to continue working.

Just as Julius left Bello Manor, it started to rain.

He stood at the doorway, looked up at the sky, and instead of turning back to get an umbrella, he braved the rain and continued walking forward.

Sometimes, he really envied people like Clayton Bello, who didn't think too much, and when they did have random thoughts, they would quickly give up. They weren't worried when they encountered problems, and they could easily solve them with just two methods—their left paw was strong and their right paw was powerful.

Although they lived under the same roof, unlike Clayton's comfortable life, he was feeling terrible lately.

The forced duel was just one of the major factors contributing to his bad mood.

Clayton Bello is another one.

Ever since Donna asked Clayton to exercise restraint, the situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse. At first, the werewolf was on the verge of losing control due to his hunger, and Julius was forced to speak and act cautiously to avoid accidentally provoking him.

The situation only improved when two clergymen from the Saint Solott Poor Man's House told him that even temperance needed to be relaxed, and a small amount of blood was added to the werewolf's daily rations.

Afterwards, Clayton visited Mr. Melcher and attended the performance club, and things went wrong again.

That group of people actually all liked Clayton, showering him with flattery and believing everything he said. They granted him every request, managing to keep the werewolf on the verge of going out of control within a safe range, but also making him increasingly arrogant.

Yesterday, this werewolf actually said something as foolish as, "I am a person worthy of your respect," to the wizard.

Julius may have some respect for Clayton, but it's unlikely he would still respect Clayton after hearing this.

Lost in thought, he boarded a public carriage as usual and spent an hour traveling to his favorite coffee shop in the city center. His stable income allowed him to spend freely there.

The rich aroma of high-quality coffee beans lingered in his nostrils. Although his sense of smell was not as sensitive as a werewolf's, as a herbal alchemist, Julius's sense of smell was still superior to that of ordinary people, and the aroma of beverages was always the most important part of his tasting program.

He picked up the cup of coffee in front of him and took a deep sniff. The familiar aroma was still pleasant, but it did nothing to ease the anxiety in his heart.

This anxiety seems to have a source, yet there's no trace of it.

The wizard knew several possible reasons, including those Clayton had mentioned, but he was unwilling to admit them. His heart screamed, screamed until it was exhausted, but his body simply sat there sipping his damn coffee.

He put down his coffee and couldn't help but reach into his coat pocket to touch the two vials that might help him advance in his career.

This was another thing that was bothering him; he still couldn't convince himself to go through with the promotion.